I made it! I managed to get to the river side where I first found myself. I let out heavy baited breaths as I walked towards the river to get a drink. Just as I was about to dip my beak into it, I noticed something. I looked bad.
I looked at myself in the river. My feathers were a mess and dirty. I looked exhausted and pathetic. Was this how I had looked this entire time?
Tears started to run down my cheeks.
'Why am I crying? No! Stop crying, it's only been a few days. There is absolutely no reason to cry. Men don't cry. W-Why?' I just broke down, the tears streaming down one by one till it became a concentrated flow of crystalline water.
This had to stop. All this running. I needed to stop it. I couldn't keep suffering like this.
'Ken! I'm sorry! I swore to live a glorious second life, yet look at me! A crying mess! A coward who keeps on running! I'm sorry! Please forgive me! I- I can't do this anymore. I want to die.'
Suddenly I had a memory of a time before my reincarnation.
I was a kid, just transferred to a new school in grade 3. I was naturally a shy person, so I wasn't able to make friends easily. One day there was soccer practice happening and I was supposed to join in on the action. I did. However, I got tackled and was hurt. Obviously I started to cry.
That would be the normal reaction, right? I scraped my knee and sat up with tears streaming down my face. The boy who tackled me came back and saw my bleeding knee. He then got closer and licked it. At that point, I was weirded out more than in pain so I just backed away and asked what he was doing.
He told me that he was licking my blood to stop the wound and that he'd heard that licking would be the fastest way to stop it. The P.E teacher got angry at his statement and knocked him on the head. The whole class laughed as he complained. At that moment I thought he was the class clown. Somebody I could never get along with.
After the day, both of us waited for our parents together. We talked a bit and he told me that there was no need to cry on the field. I asked him why and he said, because I was pretending. Confused, I asked what he meant by that.
He told me that I was simply a good actor. Rather than getting up and continuing the game, I cried just because I didn't want to play anymore. At this point I was confused. The boy told me that he hated me and that that was a stupid stunt.
Being the shy guy and not wanting to get bullied, I asked him how I could get him to stop hating me although I clearly wasn't at fault. He told me that to earn his forgiveness, I would just have to keep on begging till he gave it to me.
So the next day, I went to him, begging. He wouldn't listen. I tried again the next day. Same result. I kept this up for two weeks, because I had realized that he was popular and with that popularity meant power. I could easily be bullied by him, so I just kept on doing this till the end of sixth grade.
We were to go to middle school, but then he called me. I asked if he had forgiven me and these were his exact words "Grow a spine and fight. All these years have you even sat down once to think about what you did wrong?" to which I respond "no" because if I said yes, the truth was that I didn't know what I had done wrong.
Then he said the most shocking words. "I can't be friends with someone who is such a wimp. You did nothing wrong. I thought you would have realized that and challenged me, but you never did. If you had, we could have been real good friends." Then he left.
That was the most shocking thing I had heard him say. I wanted to cry because of how much wasted effort I put into it, but decided against it. It was my stupidity and cowardice that led to that. No one else's. He just wanted to make friends and I was too stupid to stand my ground.
'Yea… that's right. I won't take shit from others! I'll fight too! Alright then! First step is taking back my nest! This means war!'
I dipped my head into the stream then shook it, getting my battle face prepared. I was about to formulate a plan of offense, when I heard rustling from the forest. Something didn't feel right. It were almost as if I were being watched by someone.
I slowly begun to take some steps back, but then I remembered what I just thought. I wouldn't back down now! I had to take a stand and fight. How else would I grow stronger?
Whatever laid behind that bush, was my opponent for the day. I was going to devour it and grow stronger. Nothing was going to stop me now that I was in my full force.
'Bring it on! I'll take whatever you've got!'
A giant centipede appeared before me. Its skin was pitch black and its antennae were set alit with dark purple flames. It stared at me with its compound eyes and its mandibles clacked as they hit each other with glee.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Devil Centipede 98/30
[Status: [Hungry]
[Age: 2 years
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: ???
[Titles: -
[Blessings: -
[Level: 70 Exp: 7/920,000
[Health: 10000/10050 Stamina: 4590/9900 Mana: 1530/2950 Strength: 2250 Speed: 9200 Defense: 4120 Dexterity: 4500 Intelligence: 890 Magic: 1150 Luck: 1950
[Skills: [Antennae Sight], [Poison Bite], [Acid Spit], [Radar], [Fire Affinity], [Dark Affinity], [Twilight Affinity], [Probability Manipulation], [Undetectable Stealth], [Great Deception], [Universal Detection], [Super Thought Process], [Demonic Form Transformation], [Hell fire], [Soul Consumption], [Hellish Bite], [Hellish Gaze], [Temptation], [Herculean Strength], [Devastation], [Magic Absolution], [Investigator], [Teleport], [Contract], [Life Absorption], [Unfazed], [Night Prowler], [Shadow Travel], [Dark Magic], [Dark Magic: Illusion], [Dark Magic: Dark Shot], [Twilight Magic: Twilight Shot], [Twilight Magic: Dawn's Time], [Twilight Barrier], [Heaven's Inspector], [Flame Barrier], [Auto Health Regeneration], [Auto Mana Regeneration], [Possession], [Appraisal], [Modifier], [Flame Form], [Fire Magic: Purgatory], [Fire Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Ice Resistance], [Pain Nullification], [Water Magic Resistance], [Magic Attack Resistance], [Aura Resistance], [Exhaustion Nullification]
'W-What the hell?! I-I can't do this!!! What is with today and the crazy scary monsters?! First the two kings and now this guy!'
I cried as I turned to run away. To be honest, I don't know or remember what the centipede did to me. All I remember was the blood from my body flying all about as it was being broken apart and I passed out.
***
The devil centipede looked over the golden chick. It had never seen such a creature before and was intrigued. It was about to eat it, when suddenly [Universal Detection] was set ablaze and it was alarmed. It tried to run away, but it was too late. Its opponent had already appeared.
The bear gave a low growl that killed all the weaker creatures that heard it. Birds fell from the trees and insects just dropped dead. The bear was already giving off an aura that would give the best of the best trouble breathing.
It had mid-night black fur with tiny white spots spread all over it. Its eyes were just as white and it would tower over any ogre easily. With each step the titan took, the ground shook mightily and its footprint was left embedded in the ground. Its tail swayed from side to side causing shockwaves that destroyed all the trees.
Ursula Minor.
A creature that has been deemed too dangerous to be disturbed. They mostly hibernated for months, never actually trying to do anything, but when they woke up, that period was termed the 'Ursa Month'. Fortunately, it wasn't that time of the year yet. So what was this bear doing awake?
Well that was because of the Devil Centipede. It stumbled into the Ursula Minor's cave and attempted to possess its body. This caused it to go on a rampage and now it was here to destroy the centipede.
The devil centipede tried to activate its teleportation magic, but the Ursula minor used its skill [Sky Block] to prevent access. It then activated its skill [Nyx Claw]. A move that allowed for complete and utter destruction of the opponent, including their souls, unless they had some form of counter measure.
The devil centipede did not possess this counter measure. The streak of black from the monster's claws came at the centipede and broke it in half immediately, disintegrating the body.
The Ursula minor turned around and left almost as soon as it was done. Sleepily, it stumbled back to its cave to go rest.
The devil centipede then reappeared out of a subspace it had been hiding in and collapsed on the ground. Half of its body had been torn off. It had utilized [Undetectable Stealth] and [Great Deception] to lie to the Ursula minor and escape death. However, this was useless as it wasn't able to dodge the full attack.
The thing about [Nyx Claw] was that if a target got even a single scratch from it, the effect would slowly spread like a disease till the target had been wiped out. The demon centipede had only bought itself a few minutes till disintegration.
It looked around, looking for a means to survive. Normally death in this world would have just sent it back to the Devil realm, Hell, but it stood the possibility of dying. It used the skill [Probability Manipulation] to increase its odds of survival then looked at the golden chick. It was weak and dying. It didn't have an ego that would have been able to give it problems. It would simply take over and continue with its contract like it was originally supposed to.
The actual devil left the fading centipede body. It appeared in the form of a shadowy mass with massive red eyes and it looked at the chick gleefully. It swarmed the body and activated its skill, [Possession].
When the devil tried to take over Hinotori's body, it met a firewall. This fire wall was in the form of the unique skill [Evolver]. The devil was confused, but tried to bypass this ever upgrading firewall. Then there was the light.
The weird light that literally destroyed the devil… no, it wasn't destroying the devil. Sure it was tearing it apart, but it wasn't necessarily destruction. It was more like collection.
That's when the devil realized what [Evolver] was doing. The skill was morphing Hinotori's body to a state where the devil couldn't possess it. Normally this wouldn't have been possible, even with the unique skill [Evolver]. Fortunately, the very world was backing up this process.
The devil realized that it had no chance at surviving so it looked around for an escape route. It tried fleeing the body, but it wasn't allowed to. It was restricted and chained down into the body. So it did what it did in times of crises. It experimented.
It looked for a way to survive. When it found one, it took it. The devil just needed to get to that hole of escape. [Evolver] was tearing away at its very being, but if it got to that hole, none of that would have mattered. It did everything it could. In a few seconds, [Evolver]'s process would be done.
The devil knew this so it went all out. It wouldn't die now. It had been in other life threatening situations before yet here it was. It couldn't wait to see what kind of power boost it would receive after trying this.
The devil got to its hole. The devil survived.